User blog:BenIsLegitRBLX/Tips for New Directors
Howdy, I'm the dude that made Numbers. We don't really have a lot of tips for new directors, so I'm just going to list a ton and routinely update it with tutorial videos made by the community. Tips *'Ask for help!' You'd be surprised how much help you can get from the Discord. It'll probably make your production 10x better. Go join the Discord! *'Set your FOV lower, probably <50.' It looks more cinematic. You can do this by going to your explorer, click on Workspace, then Camera, and then go to properties and set it really low. I used 30. *'Use Moon Animation Suite'. The default ROBLOX animation tool sucks. This one lets you have multiple different rigs animated at once, is way more customizable, smoother, makes rigging/welding way easier, and more! It even still gets updated. So fuckin' use that one. It's a necessity to keep up with higher quality films, not optional. **Save your animations after basically everything. You don't want to lose progress. Same goes for the whole place. *'Get competent video-making software.' I'm not going to show you how to pirate anything, I would never tell you to do something illegal! But you'll want quality software, and how you obtain said software is up to you��. **This doesn't necessarily mean you have to get high-end software to make a good ROBLOX production, but most directors can tell the difference. Also, it'll be easier to get help from other directors when you use Vegas Pro. **If you're adamant on free, non-pirated video editing software, try these: Cinelerra, Shotcut, Hit Film 3 express, or look up "Free Vegas Pro alternative reddit" on Google! **If you also are adamant on free video recording software, Open Broadcast Studio (OBS) is the gold standard. It'll just take more time to set up. **If you want to get a Vegas Pro-esque product legitimately but don't want to spend hundreds of dollars, try out VEGAS Movie Studio 14 Platinum. It uses the same engine as Vegas Pro so other directors will be familiar with it as well, it's less than 30 dollars, it goes on sale a lot, and Amazon has a ridiculously lenient return policy. You could probably buy it, and if you hate it, just uninstall it and get a refund on Amazon. Easy. **Fraps is used by most directors for video recording. It's only $37 for a license, and also really easy to obtain by other methods. *'Write a script for your movie, or at least an outline'. Just follow the Exposition, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, Resolution format. If you really want to go super serious mode, then you could also write the dialogue. Trust me, it helps. Create a Google Document and just outline the different scenes. If you do this and it feels disorganized and hard to think of, then your film was going to be disorganized and hard to understand. *Until ROBLOX fixes their shitty search system, find a quality clothing group and just use that. I used to get all my clothes from Kestrel. You could also check people's inventories, preferably users who have been around for a while. You know, the users who still use 1.0 bodies. The veterans. Jason's wardrobe from Granite was 100% taken from my inventory, so it works a lot of the time. If none of that works, just try searching the catalog and filter by Most Favorited. Might work. *'Record at the highest quality you can, preferably 1080p.' It'll look better. Also have your rendering settings on point. Look up on YouTube "1080p HD Render Settings for editing software you're using" on YouTube. *Find a way to download YouTube videos. I use YouTube-DL, which ensures I get stuff at the highest quality and doesn't come with bloated adware or any bullshit. **If you use YouTube-DL, check this tutorial to see how to use it. **For sound effects, just search up on YouTube "you're looking for SFX". *'If you're going to use copyright music, try reuploading the song on YouTube with random footage to see if it has copyright issues.' So many films have been muted or entire scenes have been reshot because a song was used. Most of the time, it shouldn't be an issue. However, some composers are suuuuuper strict about who uses their music. Just be careful. **'An easy way to figure out if a song will be an issue is by making a "Soundtrack" video of your movie.' It's a nice tease to your upcoming production and will help fix any issues in the future. For an example, check out Hostage's Soundtrack video. **If you can't find the song you want to download and use on YouTube, it's probably going to get your film blocked/muted. **'USING COPYRIGHT MUSIC IN YOUR MOVIE IS NOT FAIR USE!!!' This is a common misconception. Don't challenge the takedown claims. It is only fair use in an educational or critiquing manner. Using it in your ROBLOX movie does not count as fair use. It's ultimately up to the companies that own the song whether or not it'll be a problem. *If you don't want to deal with copyright issues, try "royalty free" music. This means there'll be no copyright issues. There's a lot of hipster, lives-at-home bandcamp music composers out who just want to be noticed and have non-copyright music. There has to be at least one out there that has a song that will fit perfectly, but you just haven't found them. Try and find them, man. Use their stuff, if you want. **A lot of the less-known artists out there on the internet won't be as strict about their copyright stuff. *'Backup your stuff.' You never know when something will get taken off of YouTube or muted. You don't wanna have to deal with that. Have the file somewhere safe and ready to be reuploaded. *'Don't be afraid to try something different!' It's really neat when we see new, fresh content. You don't have to follow the same formula as everyone else. Useful Video Tutorials Category:Blog posts